


Anakin needs a damn hug

by Vanhalla



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Repressed, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26079211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vanhalla/pseuds/Vanhalla
Summary: Ja'hel didn't really care much about the war. Until it was forced on him and his people when the separatists invaded Ka'hrella. And then the Republic armies came.And then, Ja'hel met a very sad Jedi, who just happened to have gotten lost in his favorite part of the woods
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Original Character(s)
Kudos: 16





	Anakin needs a damn hug

**Author's Note:**

> I made this drawing a lil while back, after finishing season 5 of Clone Wars, of my OC hugging Anakin. I thought it would be neat to make a smol story around it, cause uh, why not.
> 
> The drawing in question: https://twitter.com/lordofpotatoes/status/1296271057851228161?s=19
> 
> And also, three other drawings made after writing this fic: https://twitter.com/lordofpotatoes/status/1297619542303268866?s=19

Ja'hel looked up at the night sky, smiling softly. He had woken up a few minutes ago, and subtly walked out of his village to climb his favorite tree and look at the stars.

Tonight was a very pleasant night.

_Well, that was, for a night on a planet at war._

The Separatists had recently invaded Ka'hrella, and then the Republic armies came, and soon enough the planet that was once peaceful and shielded from the war had been forcefully dragged into it.

A republic base had been established near their village, and Ja'hel could see the lights of it from the distance in the tree he was sitting in.

Ja'hel didn't know much about all these new people. They very rarely had visitors on Ka'hrella, and even less in his village. While he definitely was somewhat annoyed by the invasion, and a bit afraid, as most of his peers were, at the same time, he couldn't help but be a bit curious too.

Out of the two sides, the midnight nieft definitely thought that the people from the Republic looked nicer, more friendlier and approachable. For one, they were real people, not machines, but also, there was the fact that they actually seemed to get along with each other. He couldn't speak their language, and neither could they, but he knew how to spot friendly behavior when he saw it. And he knew that the separatist armies weren't very well known for their caring hearts.

_Good people, these clones and Jedi. But, according to his family, village chief, and his planet's leaders, not people who they should disturb themselves helping. It was their war, not the Nieft's._

Ja'hel climbed down the tree. _He was hungry._

He assumed his family would be up by now, and he wouldn't want to worry them by staying outside the village any longer.

But, suddenly, just as he stepped on the ground, he heard noise coming from behind, and his ears twitched up.

Heavy but unequal footsteps, footsteps that trailed a bit as they walked, maybe from injury or just a negative emotional state. And probably the footsteps of someone who didn't know where they were going.

_Not a droid. Possibly a human, or at the very least a bipedal creature._

Ja'hel's tail wagged behind him with slight panic, and he went to hide behind a tree, not sure whether or not he should be on his guard.

_While the separatists had droids, he knew they also had a few living beings in their armies. They were few and would usually not fight up front, and so the chances of Ja'hel encountering one here was feeble, but still-_

The footsteps suddenly stopped, and Ja'hel moved his ears around, trying to hear why they did. _He couldn't rely on his eyes, he wasn't facing the creature._

Then he heard the hum of a lightsaber, and he tensed up.

_A Jedi!_

Quickly, he turned his head from behind the trunk, and blinked.

It really was a Jedi. He looked rather young, had long hazel hair, dark clothes, and his lightsaber was blue, shining brightly in the night.

"Come out. I know you're watching me, whoever you are!"

He brought the weapon in front of him, and looked around. "Show yourself!" He grunted, slightly annoyed.

_He couldn't speak his language, but thankfully, he could understand it. Else, this could become quite awkward._

While he knew the Jedi couldn't see him, as his black skin and grey fur blended rather well with the darkness of the forest, Ja'hel assumed it would be wiser to come out. _He didn't wanna get into a fight._

And so, carefully, the nieft stepped into the light, and the Jedi turned around, and then quickly sheathed his lightsaber as he saw what it was.

"Oh. S-sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." The man said, taking a step back as he looked up, obviously a bit intimidated by the immense size of the nieft "I'm a bit on edge today. Sorry."

_Man, humans really were quite small._

As a response, Ja'hel growled softly, and cocked his head.

"Oh, uh, can you understand me?" The man asked slowly.

Ja'hel nodded and smiled, and the Jedi chuckled. "Oh, okay, just making sure. I didn't have a lot of time to study your language, so I don't know what you're saying right now."

Jahel growled happily, and crouched down, looking at him.

_He seemed a bit… sad. And lost._

The Jedi frowned, seemingly not liking being stared at, the scar over his eye bending along with his eyebrows, and then he sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Uhm, well, actually, good thing you're here- I'm a bit… lost? I was thinking about... things, while walking, and, I guess I didn't pay attention to where I was going." He laughed nervously. "Do you know how to get me back to the camp?"

Ja'hel nodded, and stood up. He made a sign for the Jedi to follow him, and they started walking.

_The camp was rather far away. It should take them a little while._

Ja'hel looked at the Jedi again. He could practically smell his sadness from where he was. _What exactly happened to him?_

The nieft growled softly, and tapped the man's shoulder. The man looked up, startled away from his thoughts, and frowned.

Ja'hel growled again, tail wagging sadly, and he cocked his head.

"What?"

_If only there was a way for him to ask him questions! Damn this stupid language barrier, if only this Jedi could understand what he was saying!_

Suddenly, he stopped, lifting a hand, and crouched down, placing an index finger on the ground and tracing in the dirt. 

"Huh? Why did you stop?"

The Jedi stopped as well and went to look at what he was doing, confused.

"What are you doing?"

Ja'hel wasn't the greatest when it came to art, but he assumed that his drawing should give out the intended meaning. A simple frowny face, with a tear coming from its eye, followed by an arrow pointed in the direction of the Jedi.

"Huh? What, are you saying I'm sad?" The man exclaimed, looking a bit shocked and outraged.

Ja'hel nodded, and cocked his head, ear twitching.

 _Rather, he wanted to ask_ **_why_ ** _he was sad, but it seemed like the Jedi didn't even feel like acknowledging his feelings right now._

The Jedi sighed, seemingly annoyed "I'm not-" he stopped, thinking for a second, and then grunted. "Why should you even care."

Ja'hel wiped the dirt with his hand, and then traced another picture.

_How should he explain that he felt bad for him? This was very complicated._

_Damn this language barrier._

He settled on drawing two figures hugging, hoping it would give the right message.

The Jedi looked at the drawing for a second, and then back at Ja'hel.

"You… want to… give me a hug?" He asked in a puzzled tone. Ja'hel, surprised by this, laughed softly, a low, rumbly guttural sound accompanied by the golden freckles on his face and body shining softly, and his tail wagging gleefully behind him. The Jedi frowned, even more confused, and Ja'hel sighed, scratching his head.

_Oh, sure, maybe he could do that too, even if that wasn't his intention. But he wasn't sure if that was okay._

He shook his head, and then hesitated, trying to find how to convey his message. The midnight nieft drew himself crying, next to the hugging drawing, and then made it so that the hug would look like it was being thought about by the crying face, drawing a bubble around it. He then made an arrow to the Jedi.

The human rubbed his chin, analyzing the piece.

"You… yooouuuuuu…" he hummed, eyebrows furrowing in concentration. "You... feel bad for me and want to comfort me?"

_Pretty much that._

Ja'hel smiled, and nodded.

The Jedi sighed, and stood up. "Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I don't need that. Also, I need to get back."

Ja'hel groaned and stood up, following him.

_This human was weird. Were all humans like this?_

Niefts were usually very open with their feelings. If someone was feeling bad, they would always tell someone friendly. Hiding how you felt was obviously something that most niefts didn't know about, or at least, not to this extent. The most anyone would hide would be if they were in danger and couldn't tell the people around them due to them being the reason for the danger.

_This Jedi seemed to be in pain. Extremely so._

_But… he had plenty of friends, no? All these people who hung around him, this other Jedi with a beard, the clone with blonde hair, and some other clones and Jedi he didn't bother remembering. Weren't they his friends? Weren't they all good people who would listen to him?_

"I know you're staring at me. What do you want." The Jedi grunted.

Ja'hel growled sadly, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

The Jedi sighed, and lowered his head.

"I told you. I'm fine."

He crossed his arms and pouted.

_Oh, sure, because this was definitely the way happy people acted._

Ja'hel gave up trying, and settled on trying to guess himself.

_It definitely had to do with the war._

_Maybe it was just that._

_Although, it was probably even more than that._

When the Three Tribes were still at war on Ka'hrella, decades ago before the peace, Ja'hel could see his mother, father and older sister all be so distraught and sad, whenever a nieft from the Midnight tribe would perish. He knew what it felt like. He knew what it looked like.

_And this._

_The look of pain on this Jedi's face._

It was _deeper_.

More _personal_.

It wasn't just war. It was like a deep scar, that had been there from the very start, and had only deepened with the war, and then some.

_But what was it?_

The Jedi sighed, and turned to face Ja'hel, stopping in his tracks.

"I won't tell you everything. But I can tell you this." 

Ja'hel stopped too, and tilted his head.

_Even if this was only a part of the issue, the nieft knew that this would be better than not saying anything at all._

"I… lost someone close to me recently. She's not dead- he froze, and grunted. "I hope so, at least." He chuckled sadly. "Oh, _kriff_ , I really hope so…" he passed a hand on his forehead. 

He stayed in silence for a second, then breathed in, preparing to speak again. 

"She left me- us, recently. And… I can't help but feel like I should've done more. Like it's my fault."

The hand on his forehead rubbed down across his face, as he looked up at Ja'hel.

"Obi Wan told me I did my best, but… I just… I don't believe that."

_This Jedi… he didn't take too well to people leaving. The pained glint in his eyes and the strained tone of his voice made it seem like that pain was familiar. Like this wasn't the first time he lost someone close to him._

The man grunted, looking down, and groaned, as if he were debating whether or not he should keep talking. 

"It's just- I-" a soft, barely perceptible whimper slipped out of him, and he cleared his throat to cover it up.

"I should've tried harder. I had the opportunity to. But I just didn't do anything. And because of that… she left…"

He stood there, silent. And Ja'hel did the same, pondering on what to do or say.

_Was this a good time to ask for a hug? Yes? No? Maybe this was too soon._

"Did… did you mean it, when you asked to hug me..?" The Jedi said softly, looking up ever so slightly. 

Ja'hel nodded, then stepped a bit closer, crouched, and opened up his arms, growling softly.

The Jedi sighed. And then he came closer, and wrapped his arms around his neck, the hands sinking into the fluff of his furry collar. Ja'hel pulled him closer, and smiled when he felt the man bury his face in his fur, fingers digging into the back of the collar. And after some time, he started to feel the Jedi cry. 

It was soft, at first. Very subtle shaking, and a few sniffles. But then it got a bit bigger, and eventually turned to violent sobs, his whole body shaking as he gasped and sobbed, his grip on the fluff of the nieft getting tighter.

Ja'hel frowned, lifting a hand up to his head, and gently stroking his hair.

He looked at the crying man, not being able to see his face with the angle he was in, but very well guessing just how distraught he was feeling right now.

_What kinds of horrors had been lingering in this poor Jedi's mind… horrible things, that weighed on his conscience this hard, with so much pressure, that a simple hug would be able to let it all out?_

Feeling that his legs were starting to get a bit tired, Ja'hel decided to sit down, back leaning against a nearby tree, the Jedi's knees bending to the ground with the motion. 

Ja'hel looked up at the sky, thinking.

 _Had anyone even_ **_ever_ ** _done this to him before? How long had it been since he'd gotten a hug, a_ **_real_ ** _hug, a real,_ **_comforting_ ** _hug?_

Ja'hel moved his head, gently nuzzling against the Jedi's own, and smiled sadly.

 _It seemed like Ja'hel did the right thing._ Seeing how much, and how loudly this man was crying, it was obvious he'd been holding in a _lot_ of emotions. Frustration, pain, sadness, and even anger, all mixed in together in his crying, the Jedi not even saying anything, only sound coming from his mouth being the constant, pained cries, gasps and sobs. The hug wasn't just comfort as much as it had been a switch, a switch that triggered all those emotions to get loose, and explode.

_Ja'hel didn't know what happened to this man. He didn't know why he was so sad, so hurt. But kriff, he would do his best to comfort him. Even if he didn't feel like talking about his issues completely._

_Because he felt like he_ **_needed_ ** _to._

The Jedi dug his fingers deeper into the fur a bit more, breathing in sharply, and then, his cries started to quiet down. Slowly, his breathing got more even, until he completely calmed down. He stayed there still, breathing calmly into the fluff, holding on just as tightly like his life depended on it.

Ja'hel kept stroking his hair slowly, assuming he didn't want to let go. _He might've calmed down. But that didn't mean he was satisfied and happy now._

After a while, the Jedi lifted his head up, hands still on the nieft's shoulders. 

"I… my name's Anakin. Anakin Skywalker." He mumbled, wiping his eyes with his palm. Ja'hel smiled, and growled. Anakin stayed still, frowning in confusion.

"Uhm… I don't know what you just said. Did you say your name, or just acknowledged what I said?"

Ja'hel giggled, and, still with the Jedi in his arms, he leaned down, and traced in the dirt.

Anakin squinted, and then his face lit up. "Oh! Your writing looks a bit like how Shyriiwook sounds!"

Ja'hel turned to him, surprised.

"I… don't actually speak it, but I can recognize it." He tilted his head. "It's… not identical, though. Your language sounds less like a growl and more like… gargly grunts with syllables." He chuckled softly. "Could you… repeat what you wrote again?"

Ja'hel nodded, and said it out loud, clearly and slowly.

Anakin squinted, trying to concentrate.

"Ja…" he started.

"Ja'hel." The nieft repeated

"Ja'hel?" Anakin did the same, looking up with a hopeful gaze.

Ja'hel nodded, his tail wagging happily behind him. Anakin smiled. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Ja'hel."

Realizing he was still in the nieft's arms, he straightened up, and quickly pulled away _,_ looking away a bit shyly _. Well, that was the end of that._

"O-oh, uhm-" he stood up, and, as Ja'hel did too, he lifted an arm up. Ja'hel took it, and shook it. Anakin smiled.

"Thank you." He chuckled, and looked down. "I don't know how to say this but… I really needed that. _Really."_

Ja'hel growled happily, and pat his head.

_It's no problem. He was glad he could help._

Anakin laughed softly, and they started walking again, a bit slower.

"Is… is this something you usually do..? What you just did, I mean." He asked, crossing his arms behind his back.

Ja'hel shrugged and scrunched his nose, showing hesitation. _More or less. He'd never been the one who gave the hug, but, as he was a rather sensitive child and he'd feel upset rather often, he remembered he always felt at peace in his mother's arms. This was what made him know Anakin would need a hug._

"How… How did you know that… it was going to help?" Anakin then asked.

_He only assumed it would be the same for this man. They were both furry, warm-blooded creatures. He could only assume he would have similar reactions to a comforting embrace._

Ja'hel shrugged, and tapped his chest, growling softly. " _I know because it works for me."_ Is what he wanted to say.

_He knew he couldn't understand. But well, might as well say it anyway._

Anakin sighed, and smiled very faintly.

"It's nice…"

They finally arrived near the camp, and both men stopped.

Anakin then looked up at Ja'hel. "If… if we could… maybe we could do this again, tomorrow? Until I leave, at least."

Ja'hel smiled, and nodded. He tapped his shoulder, and ruffled his hair, and Anakin laughed softly, smoothing a hand over his scalp and pouting.

"Oh oh, though if you keep treating me like a child, then maybe I won't come back!" He said in a teasing tone, smirking. Ja'hel giggled, tail wagging, and crouched down to give him a hug again, before he let him leave, watching him run to his friends, and Ja'hel sighed, walking away, hands behind his back.

_He was happy he'd get to help him. He didn't know why. But he felt like the happiness of this man, the fact he had to keep his mind at peace, was extremely crucial, somehow. Crucial for more than himself._

_A state of mind that, if broken, could affect billions._

_And he was hoping he could help with that for as long as he could._

**Author's Note:**

> Oh yeah, I actually hadn't originally planned for Niefts (and the planet Ka'hrella, and Ja'hel himself) to be a part of the SW universe. Midnight niefts are a sub-type of aliens (niefts, the other two groups are bloody-handed niefts and wooly niefts) that I had created before getting into SW, and once I got more into it I thought, instead of taking an alien that was already in the series, to just take one of my alien bois who at this point had been collecting dust, and make OCs with em :3
> 
> Niefts aren't the only alien OCs I have tho, I also have Na'ahs, Darwinians, and Gemoids (all three had also, funnily enough, been created at the same time as Niefts, tho all for different original stories, most of which are now scrapped)
> 
> EDIT: I made more alien species bc I fuckin love writing sci-fi. New ones are Skarths, Dichorians, Fi-lilis and Dragoniens (they're all from a story I'm writing rn. The "prologue" (in quotes bc it was just a short romance story whose lore I wanted to expand upon) is already out, in case you're curious. It's called Mal de l'espace (it's french but hey, Google translate is pretty neat if you wanna read it)


End file.
